Product. Passion & Salt.

A Blog of thoughts, musings and occasional rants by Executive Chef, Jimmy Sneed.

I went to Saxis, Virginia, last Friday to meet the folks that will be sending us our softshell crabs. It’s true that we do the best but in the interest of honesty (and humility) it’s all about the product. The dirty little secret is this. You do not want your crabs to arrive alive. It’s true. If they’re alive, they have ‘hardened’ enough to survive a cross country trip. We want them soft, baby soft, velvet soft. So you have to find someone who will remove them from the water immediately after shedding, not eight to ten hours later as all crabbers do.

Even I had trouble convincing the folks at Shore Seafood (don’t tell anyone our source) to pull them out right away and kill them. Poor silly chefs think they need ‘em alive so that’s the way it’s done. Since I used to ‘shed’ my own crabs back in Urbanna, Virginia years ago, I quickly convinced them that I know of what I speak. Our crabs are soooo soft that you end up eating the pure essence of crab. We’ll have them on the menu thru October. And, minimalist that I am, don’t ask for tartar sauce. You’ll see why.